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Title deed card for Wolfsberg

1990.0033.0011.053

Title deed card for Wolfsberg

Physical description

Title deed card for Wolfsberg. Pink with white border. Name on purple panel along top. Details of rent on front and mortgage value on back.

Statement of significance

The Vienna Mozart Boys Choir collection no. 1 contains souvenirs, toys, costumes, vinyl records, school books and other items that belonged to the 20 boys aged from 9 to 14 who toured the world from December 1938 to September 1939 as the Vienna Mozart Boys Choir.

Having toured throughout the United States, the Pacific and Australia they became stranded in Perth when the ship on which they were to return to Austria was requisitioned. Germany had just invaded Poland and Australia had entered the Second World War. Dr Daniel Mannix, then the archbishop of Melbourne, offered that his parishioners would provide foster care in return for the boys forming a choir at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. The boys soon started school and attempted to learn English as they learnt their lessons. Remaining in Australia, however, likely saved their lives, as they came of age during the war and would have been conscripted into the German army. Only one returned to live in Vienna after the war.